Assistance will be provided to uMkhanyakude District’s two major sectors, namely agriculture and tourism, which were adversely impacted by the recent flooding.
District municipality’s head of communications Mdu Dlamini said the provincial tourism department on Wednesday visited various tourism destinations in the district, one of which was Hilltop in Hluhluwe-iMfolozi Park, to assess the extent of damage from the devastating downpours, and to determine the type of assistance required.
ALSO READ: Scores of Mtubatuba homes affected by recent floods
Furthermore, the Department of Agriculture has created a programme to provide help to farmers within the district, whose crops were damaged, Dlamini said.
He added that these farmers include those in Jozini and uMhlabuyalinga, some of whose crops of 20 hectares were damaged.
According to assessments carried out by the district municipality’s disaster management team, over 47 houses were badly damaged in Mtubatuba and over 67 in Dukuduku.
The district municipality, working with the Department of Social Development, provided tents, mattresses, blankets and food to affected people within the district, Dlamini said.
‘We are working with various government departments to identify other families who were affected. Our disaster management teams have been sent throughout the district to continue with the assessment, which is ongoing,’ Dlamini said.
He added that the district municipality was working with the various local municipalities within its jurisdiction to collect data of those affected by the rain.
‘At this stage, we cannot give a final number of the people affected as our work is ongoing,’ Dlamini said.
District Mayor Siphile Mdaka made use of the ‘yellow plant’ earthmoving equipment donated by the provincial government about three years ago, to help affected areas.
‘The yellow plant consists of TLBs and caterpillars, some of which have been sent to Dukuduku to dig trenches that could help with draining the flood water,’ Dlamini said.
He said uMkhanyakude Municipality had not received any reports that people within the district had to be temporarily housed in community halls.
He said, however, that work was ongoing to identify damaged homes so the housing department could be duly informed and speedily build houses for those affected.
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